Genshin Impact has broken records and wallets within its first year of remarkable success. The deluge of content made available to players has encouraged some and deterred others, overwhelmed by story commitments contingent upon limited time events. Among all the growth Genshin Impact has invested in over this 12-month span, these are the most game-changing developments that keep players coming back for more.
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Dragonspine
Version 1.2 of Genshin Impact introduced the frosty ruins of Dragonspine, and with it the Sheer Cold mechanic. Dragonspine diverged from the more straightforward exploration of its neighboring regions, challenging players to balance environmental stressors with puzzles and combat. Dragonspine also quietly directed players’ attention to Ruin Guard lore, burying dismantled machines with displaced numerical codes in snowdrifts, referencing the motif of lost civilizations.
Zhongli’s Buff
Developer miHoYo’s decision to buff Zhongli after fan backlash had the duel effect of designing one of the most broken characters in Genshin Impact, and establishing a dialogue between audience and creator. Zhongli received his resistance-shredding Jade Shield buff in Version 1.3 after negative feedback largely sourced from social media. The buff was noteworthy mainly because of miHoYo’s attention to, and validation of, audience discourse. That being said, those buffs jointly solidified Zhongli as an unmatched shield.
Hangouts
With a plethora of playable characters and many more on the way, fans are bound to pick a favorite who just doesn’t get enough screen time. Genshin Impact’s Hangouts launched in Version 1.4 and offer some behind-the-scenes bonding between the protagonist and lovable personalities that lack their own Story Quests. Hangouts give fans canon interactions with side characters they can engage with at their own pace. As content stretches thin thanks to time-locked Resin, Hangouts deliver brief interludes of minor story growth that help fill that void.
Serenitea Pot
Genshin Impact’s housing system has been criticized for lacking any real utility beyond a Sims-esque delve into rotating furniture, but it has added as pastime for players seeking refuge from the daily grind. The Serenitea Pot debuted in Version 1.5, and has subsequently received furnishing updates and a Companion move-in feature with new character dialogue. Recently, it branched out into literal farming, generating easily sourced plant materials with the new gardening plots, as well as tidbits of lore in the blueprint descriptions. By far the bestseller at Tubby’s Realm Depot is precious Fragile Resin, allowing players to squeeze a few extra domain runs out of their week.
Elemental Mastery Buff
Elemental Mastery amplifies Elemental Reaction-based damage in Genshin Impact. Vaporize and Melt have long over-shadowed their non-CRIT counterparts, and players were hoping specifically for an Electro buff on the eve of Inazuma’s release. The EM buff did increase Overload and Electro-Charged damage, but it had the greatest effect on Swirl.
Anemo characters like Sucrose and Kazuha (for whom the buff was probably intended, coinciding with his Event Banner) went from great to jaw-dropping Supports capable of hitting big cumulative reaction numbers all on their own. This changed the ideal build for fan-favorite Venti: It’s now recommended he carry a straight flush of EM artifacts.
We Will Be Reunited
The Version 1.4 “We Will Be Reunited” Archon Quest marked a tonal shift in Genshin Impact that has since gained momentum in Inazuma. The Quest primarily startled fans with its first on-screen corpse. Though there’s no lack of fighting in Genshin Impact, foes usually fade out of existence or make a strategic exit upon defeat. The sight of a dead, bound Treasure Hoarder offered up to a sacrilegious icon was an unexpectedly morbid scene in a relatively light-hearted, low-stakes game like Genshin Impact.
Dainsleif’s direct mention of Khaenri’ah was narratively significant — its destruction is implied to be the origin of the Traveler’s story, and therefore the driving force of Genshin Impact as a whole. Most importantly: The Traveler finally encountered their sibling.
Inazuma
Inazuma as a whole contained so many imperative developments: The combat scaling, the reward systems, the thickening plot. Genshin Impact Version 2.0 released the initial trio of islands and welcomed players into a world far less friendly than the idle wilds of Mondstadt and Liyue. Inazuma proved that miHoYo is interested in increasing the gameplay difficulty with ruthless new Kairagi mobs and the Corrosive, shield-cracking Rifthounds set loose in Version 2.2. The Sakura Tree was a welcome experiment in utilizing sigils, and added nuance to exploration with achievement-dependent puzzles.
By far the greatest change delivered by Inazuma was the darker narrative. La Signora’s demise — and the Traveler’s decision to initiate it — is the first notable character death in Genshin Impact. The Traveler’s deliberate choice to enable Raiden’s guillotine, and their resulting panic attack, pivoted the audience away from the Traveler as a first-person storytelling vehicle and allowed them a peak at the Traveler as an individual.
Now that players have met the Traveler’s sibling, acknowledged the fall of Khaenri’ah, and experienced the most emotionally-charged repercussions to date, Genshin Impact fans are curious — and a bit wary — to see what miHoYo’s future vision has in store.
Genshin Impact is available on mobile devices, PC, PS4, and PS5.
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